An asylum seeker has been jailed after using four different names to claim £30000 in benefits

Eritrean Harun Adam Abo Aela, 28, was charged and sentenced under the name Ahmed Mohammed, even though authorities said that was “probably” not his real name. But they could not find a passport for his Aela identity, even though he insisted that is his correct ID.

He used the identities Salah Gafer, Hamam Achmed, Amgd Abas and Ahmed Adnan to claim for money in three different German cities.

Authorities say there are numerous cheats like him among the 1.3 million refugees Germany has absorbed in the past 20 months, costing the state tens of millions of pounds.

Aela came to Germany in 2015 and realised he could milk the system by moving from place to place.

Sentencing him to 21 months jail in Hanover on Thursday Judge Sabine Mzee told him: "There was huge damage to the public purse through your actions.”

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Harun Adam Abo Aela swindled the taxpayer out of nearly £30,000 by claiming benefits using fake name

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He used four different identities, but fingerprints unraveled the scam

Aela was caught in the autumn of last year when he entered a social security office in Hanover to pick up cash for a “friend” – one of his fake identities – and an official was suspicious of his papers.

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Fingerprint checks soon unraveled the scam. A search of his state-funded accommodation in the city turned up the plethora of bank and ID cards bearing his fake names.

A policeman involved in the case said at his trial: “We also turned up an address in France. He said he wanted an apartment there to settle down in.”

The judge heard that he blew all his money on booze, cigarettes and designer clothing.